Steamboat School

by Deborah Hopkinson and Illustrated by Ron Husband

Reading Level: K - 2, Age 5-8

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 40

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion, 2016

ISBN: 9781423121961

Summary: 

In this inspiring picture book, based on the true story of Reverend John Berry  Meachum, a story of determination, courage and resourcefulness is told. James, the protagonist, and Rev. Meachums’s students are faced with a threat to their education, when the state of Missouri passes a law prohibiting the education of African Americans in the 1840s. Carefully and courageously, Meachum organizes a school in the basement of a home in the community to protect his students right to an education, until authorities find out.  To circumvent this unjust law, Meachum decides to build the innovative Steamboat School, which can float in the Mississippi River and operate outside of Missouri State boundaries.  

Element 3: Exploring Issues of Social Injustice

This book explores issues of social injustice from our country's past history that are relevant today. Although education is a basic human right, many federal and state laws affect our children’s access to an education. Resistance to this injustice is shown in the examples of the students and their teacher, who stood up to fight for their right to an education and thought of ways to undermine this racist law.  Students who read this book will learn that they should not allow oppression to prevent them from their right to an education or any other right. They will also learn about how they can use creativity, ingenuity and community capital to find solutions to social injustice.

Activity: 

Since this book is recommended for grades K-2, a possible activity would be to have them create their own school to help students gain access to education.  Each student will bring an empty shoe box to school where they will use their own creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity to design their own school. It could be a mobile school, a Steamboat school, or other type of school. Students will also create paper dolls to represent the main characters in the story and write on each character what they did to fight for their education. 

Additional Teacher Resources:

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